


Time to tuck in

by DominicKnight



Series: Conversations with an AI [1]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble, Project Zero Dawn, Spoilers, pre-game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 20:06:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10726296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DominicKnight/pseuds/DominicKnight
Summary: This contains spoilers for the game if you have not finished it. Proceed at your own risk.





	Time to tuck in

**Author's Note:**

> This game and its story has lingered with me since I completed it. To help me process it further I'm writing some drabbles based off of what we know, and perhaps what we don't. Please feel free to let me know what you think as I continue. Enjoy!

Elisabet sat on the edge of her bunk, the central air loud in her room that it drowned out the noise of the facility. She mulled over the conversation she finished with GAIA. 

Life moved fast since that day on the ranch with the tree and baby birds. 

Late nights talking to GAIA, programming, and monitoring all the aspects of Zero Dawn left her little time to think about the past. But this conversation stirred something in her mind. 

Did she make the right choices that led to this moment? Her legacy would be GAIA, Zero Dawn, and what she hoped would be a future for the planet. But was that enough? Would it all work in the end?

Elisabet rubbed her face with her hands and looked to the bedside shelf where a picture of her and her parents sat on the day she graduated with her Ph.D. They were back at the ranch. She couldn’t remember the last time she visited them. Elisabet yearned to see the sign bearing their family name. Her days ran together that when she glanced at the calendar to see when the last time they talked, it had been nearly two weeks. 

She needed to call them and express how sorry she was. For the Plague, and not being a good daughter. Her mother would wave away the Plague apology and curse Faro for being a sociopath driven by greed. The good daughter apology always made her mother laugh. She would bring up the Nobel Prize, the Rachel Carson, and all of the accomplishments attached to Elisabet’s name. 

Her mother was proud, even if Elisabet felt like she shouldn’t be with the world ending. The one thing Elisabet couldn’t fix.

She lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. 

Her mother would never admit that she was sad that Elisabet never gave them a grandchild. She lived an accelerated life the instant that tree caught on fire. Each milestone gave her a brighter future. But it also pushed her away from the average life people her age experienced.

Elisabet rolled onto her side and pulled the comforter around her. She pressed her thumb to a panel on the side of the shelf and the lights dimmed. 

In a few short hours, she would have to be up to listen to subroutine updates, make programming suggestions, talk to GAIA, deal with Ted, and check in with General Herres. Her list of tasks never got shorter each day the Plague approached.

It was time to tuck in.


End file.
